Strange Lineup in the Batting Order

No blockbuster opinions from the Court today, but Salazar v. Ramah Navajo Chapter gave us the following 5-4 decision:

Sotomayor, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Kagan in the majority; Roberts, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Alito in dissent.

You might never see that one again.

Share

Gerard Magliocca

Gerard N. Magliocca is the Samuel R. Rosen Professor at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. Professor Magliocca is the author of three books and over twenty articles on constitutional law and intellectual property. He received his undergraduate degree from Stanford, his law degree from Yale, and joined the faculty after two years as an attorney at Covington and Burling and one year as a law clerk for Judge Guido Calabresi on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Professor Magliocca has received the Best New Professor Award and the Black Cane (Most Outstanding Professor) from the student body, and in 2008 held the Fulbright-Dow Distinguished Research Chair of the Roosevelt Study Center in Middelburg, The Netherlands. He was elected to the American Law Institute (ALI) in 2013.

1 Response

The Confrontation Clause opinion probably doesn’t decide much with its hedging and plurality (4-1-4) but Kagan’s dissent is a charming reading, including reference to “constitutional geegaw” and quoting the plurality and saying “I couldn’t say it better myself.” Scalia joined it, splitting with Thomas, who agreed with much of its reasoning, but found some idiosyncratic reason to join the plurality.